Auction House Accused of Selling Fake Picasso

QUEENS, N.Y. (CN) – Pablo Picasso’s sculpture “Femme Debout” is at the center of a gallery’s lawsuit against an auction house over the authenticity of the work. Hartman Rare Art, a Manhattan-based gallery, thought it had gotten a bargain when it placed the winning bid of $9,840 for the sculpture at the Queens-based Capo Auction house on May 20, 2013, according to its six-page complaint filed in the Supreme Court of New York in Queens. The lawsuit states that “the sculpture artwork, if original, genuine and authentic, would have had a fair market value of no less than $75,000.” Hartman’s lawsuit reveals little about why the gallery believes the sculpture is a fake of the 1945 work. The complaint is silent on any details about the sculpture’s provenance, and the gallery’s lawyer Stuart Serota of the firm Kaufman & Serota Esq. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Larry Berman, a co-owner of the auction house, said in a phone interview that he has not received a copy of the complaint. The gallery wants a refund of the $9,840 it paid for the fake, and $75,000 in restitution – the fair market value of the real Picasso sculpture. Picasso appears to have titled several of his works “Femme Debout,” French for “Standing Woman.” One valued by Sotheby’s at $1.2 million was a collaboration between the Spanish artist and the French sculptor Henri Laurens. Another by Picasso alone sold for $37,400 at Christie’s.